My Love / Hate Relationship with my Stroller

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After the birth of my second baby, my husband bought me the Cadillac of double strollers. It was beautiful, sturdy, and had plenty of storage for necessities. And it was big. I needed it though to harness my new baby, my two-year-old, and all of the crazy that goes along with a growing family.

I loved my new gift, but it came with a few challenges.

Remember the days of running downtown and shopping in those cute little shops? Yeah, those days are gone. Good luck getting any stroller through those slim doors; and if there are steps? Forget it. Now when I go downtown, I am usually with someone so that one of us can stand outside with the stroller while the other person runs inside to quickly shop around, or if the store is big enough, I have someone to hold the door open for me while I maneuver my boat inside. Same with any strip mall without automatic doors. Avoid. Avoid. Avoid. And double doors. What is up with those?! I don’t mean two doors side-by-side, I mean the kind of doors where you go through one set of doors only to have to then immediately attempt to go through another set of doors like some sort of twisted mom-hating obstacle course.

And let’s not forget that before we can attempt to get inside any building, we have to get the stroller out of the car. Some are light, some are heavy. Some you need to push a button to open and close, others you need a full toolbox and engineering degree. Some are ready to go, some you need to attach and reattach gadgets and seats each and every time you use it.

So now I’m pretty much a mall gal. I know where the handicap doors are so I can push the button as I breeze through with my entourage. I like the large hallways and the fact that there are no doors to each and every store. I can also get something to eat and have a place to park my large ride. Parks are great too, or large urban trails and walkways. 

I imagine the struggles moms go through just to get in a door are similar (but I’m in no way comparing the severity) to someone in a wheelchair. I can only guess the number of public places that people with disabilities cannot go to or just flat out avoids because of situations like this. And I can only imagine the amount of money that businesses are losing with these different groups avoiding their locations due to lack of easy accessibility.

I didn’t have to write this article just because I have a double stroller, most of the same issues I described I had with my single as well. And this doesn’t mean I got rid of my single stroller. No, no, in fact, I still have that and my umbrella stroller because each situation calls for a specific stroller/kid combination depending on where we are going and what we will be doing; and I’m even contemplating buying a double umbrella stroller someday…